Several years ago I attended an informal estate auction organised for friends and family. It was organised by my friend and her family who had been given some bits and pieces left over once the formal disbursement of a family friend’s estate had concluded. The plan was to use any money raised from the auction to support the physical care needs of my friend’s niece who had suffered an acquired brain injury at birth.

The auction was an interesting peek into the life of a gentleman who had a long and distinguished career serving his nation both in Australia and overseas. Items up for auction ranged from bric-a-brac to collector items, and there were many treasured and/or quirky items from far flung places. Items were to go to a charity shop if they were not sold. Friends and family bid enthusiastically. My recollection of the evening are hazy. We were outbid on several items. Two ornaments caught my True Love’s attention. I paid them no attention at all. They were a bit kitsch. Everybody must have thought the same thing because there was little interest in bidding for them. Much to my surprise, my True Love bid successfully on the two little elephants and we became their new owners.

Here they are.

My True Love said that he couldn’t let them go to a charity shop to be sold for a couple of dollars or worse still, go to landfill. His best guess is that the elephants are carved in ebony and the tusks and toes are ivory, but that is only a guess. It is a distressing thought. We keep them even though they make us uncomfortable. We don’t know their provenance. There is no mark of the maker. Perhaps they were given as a gift and the gentleman did not want to offend by declining it? Maybe the elephant (?) from which the ivory came, died of natural causes? It was a very long time ago. There is no one alive today who can tell us the story. In fact, we do not tell this story often. We feel the shame of possession and dispossession.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

We’ve seen similar photos online that indicate the ebony is of Sri Lankan origin.

41 thoughts on “To Rescue Or Not?”

  1. That’s an awkward one, isn’t it? The damage has been done and nothing is gained by simply chucking them away. But yes, I understand your discomfiture. Still, they have a place in our story, and or growing awareness of the harm we are all causing. Maybe one day you’ll be able to fill a few gaps in this particular tale, perhaps even as a result of this post?

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  3. An upward pointed elephant trunk dispenses energy, luck, prosperity and kindness. It is a movement elephants use to greet friends and express sheer delight.
    I think the old gentleman might be glad you have these, Tracy. Who knows what they meant to him.

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      1. No.. In India and Sri Lanka, white elephants were sacred and couldn’t be used for labor. If someone was gifted with a white elephant, it was in fact a disaster as they would have to pay for huge amounts of feed for it and yet could derive no utilitarian use of it. Thus white elephant came to designate a gift that no one really wanted. Every Xmas I used to have a party where people wrapped up white elephants–things they had at home that they no longer wanted– and there was a game by which they were dispersed.

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      3. Ha. It has been known to happen. In the game, one guest can steal a white elephant from another player who came before them. People have been known to go home early to avoid having their gift stolen! Really.

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  5. What a wonderful event for that family to plan. In bidding at the auction you have not only helped a child in need, but have perhaps made a gentleman’s life mean something. All our possessions are tied to some story or memory, good or bad. I agree it is an object that may hold some discomfort, but fortunately the human species has learned from(mostly) its mistakes in this regard.

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    1. The man concerned had a significant role in Australian history, Heather. He helped a lot of people. It seems fitting that he continued to do so after his death through the money raised. We have these two items and will look after them. The ebony itself is a precious wood, now endangered. Good to know that these trees are now protected in many countries.

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  6. There’s nothing here to feel ashamed of. You didn’t kill the elephant from whom the ivory (if it is ivory and not just bone from some random dead thing) came from. These little creatures didn’t do it, either. ❤

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  7. As a carver I’d spot them as items made for the tourist trade prior to around 1970. Made in local materials that were not then either proscribed nor especially rare being they were made from bits and pieces. They were skillfully carved by actual local artisans and should be prized.
    after about 1970 most of the stuff become trash, then junk mass produced, and at last Chinese s@#t.

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      1. Probably small remaindered pieces of Ebony left over from larger jobs. Carver’s are part of the waste stream diversion process. We take small pieces cabinet shops and carpenters can’t use and make them into useful items. In my shop most of the cherry I use is from other shops waste stream. Very little goes to waste.
        I doubt the tusks are ivory, even in small pieces it’s valuable.

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  8. I have a very similar elephant carved of wood that my wealthy Victorian great-great grandparents brought back from one of their world tours, along with plenty of carved ivory and such. *ouch*

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  11. Jack would most certainly have been bidding against your TL, Jack has a passion for small carved artifacts, he scours op shops for them and has shelves full of them in his “play/art room.

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